Men's Tennis

Gauchos Drop 4-3 Heartbreaker to Visiting San Francisco

Mar 11, 2007

March 11, 2007

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. -
The UC Santa Barbara men's tennis team lost a heartbreaking match at home on Sunday to visiting San Francisco, 4-3. The Gauchos won the doubles point, but then dropped four of the six singles matches.

UCSB, which has been plagued by a numerous injuries this season, nabbed its first doubles point in quite some time. The Gauchos dropped the decision at No. 1 doubles, but Josh Finkelstein and Nigel Barton defeated Thong Tu and Falko Huettenberger at No. 2, 9-7, and Bijan Hejazi and Max Taylor topped Einar Hart and Rainer Nachbauer at No. 3, 8-5, to give Santa Barbara a 1-0 lead heading in to the singles contests.

The visiting Dons won at No. 1 No. 3, No. 4 and No. 5 singles to seal the victory. At No. 1, senior Matthew Berry defeated Gaucho junior Anders Dalskov, playing his first match at No. 1 this season, by a score of 6-2, 6-0.

Hejazi, who played No. 2 in 2006 but was playing No. 2 for the first time this season, defeated Huettenberger by a decisive 6-3, 6-3 count. At No. 3, Finkelstein dropped a 6-4, 6-4 decision to Thong Tu, and at No. 4, it was Nachbauer, a freshman, beating Barton by a 6=2, 6-0 score.

The match was decided at No. 5 singles. Asaf Cohen, a freshman, extended UCSB's Max Taylor to three sets and posted a 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 victory.